ARNE ENGELS will line up in the Celtic midfield for tonight’s Premiership encounter against Aberdeen at Pittodrie.
If Sean Dyche had got his way the Belgian international playmaker could have been getting ready for his Nottingham Forest debut against Leeds United at Elland Road on Friday night.
The champions resisted THREE late bids from the struggling Premier League outfit – six points clear of the drop zone – with the last being £25million, the same sum that enticed the Hoops hierarchy to part company with Kieran Tierney to Arsenal and Matt O’Riley to Brighton.
STAYING POWER…Arne Engels will be a Celtic key man for the remainder of the season.
On this occasion, though, the Parkhead powerbrokers weren’t interested and the club’s record buy at £11million from Augsburg in August 2024 will be in harness as the champions continue the quest for a fifth successive title.
Looking at the cash that was offered for his 22-year-old midfielder, interim boss Martin O’Neill responded: “For here, that’s an awful lot of money.
“Personally, I’m delighted that the board turned it down because it is really tempting. It came at a really late stage, so it’s great credit to them.
“Arne didn’t kick up a fuss about it, either. His agent is happy enough with the situation. Arne’s happy here and he wants to see what the season will bring at the end.”
The champions go into this evening’s north-east encounter in the knowledge a win over the Dons will put them just three points adrift of leaders Hearts who lost 1-0 to St Mirren in Paisley last night.
Five players have arrived in various types of loan deals in the winter transfer window with Julian Araujo and Tomas Cvancara joined on deadline day by Junior Adamu, Joel Mvuka and Benjamin Arthur.
O’Neill is pleased with the reinforcements to his squad and, speaking to Celtic TV, continued: “The first thing is, you’re talking about differentiating between quality and numbers.
BEST FOOT FORWARD…Arne Engels and John Souttar duel for the ball in Celtic’s 3-1 derby win in the Premier Sports League Cup semi-final at Hampden in November.
“And we do need people in because we can pick up injuries and suspensions. So, it’s nice to get a few people in, in different positions.
“I think they can help in the manner in which the two earlier arrivals [Araujo and Cvancara] have done really fine.
“I’m happy with them, and if the rest of them make the same sort of contribution, then I’ll be delighted.”
O’Neill added: “I wanted some players in here that could maybe help us and I think they will and they can do.
“There’s a bit of competition for places now, I genuinely believe that, and that can only be a good thing between now and the end of the season.”
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